searchingfornorway

This is a depiction of Odin of Asgard, here called Odin the Wanderer, disguised as a traveller.

Ok, so, here is a tale of my ancestry searchings…..I was gifted with names and dates back to the 1200’s by distant cousins in Norway, who i found 15 or so years ago on a research message board. They gave me their source info with each name and date. I was thrilled! Now, 15 or more years later i have come back to search some more on Ancestry dot com, and found all these little leaves when i entered my info. These mostly connected with other family trees, (some of which do not line up with your info, and some of which do). I followed the trail of the ones that lined up, which gave another bit of info and led me on, and on, and on…….. Not only did the line go thru several Viking Kings, but kept going, on and on, to, guess where? Odin of Asgard! Is this the vanity of Norwegians, these crazy Norwegians, to claim all their heritage stems from none other than Odin? I am thrilled, and honored (hehe), certainly….. yet…….

I remember my grandfather and grandmother, both 100% Norwegian, my grandmother always so gentle and sweet, and grandfather always so stubborn and certain! Daddy Dok was never sick, always right, and couldn’t carry a tune. Nanny was always sweet, never cranky, and musically gifted. I loved them so much. If i told them we were related to Odin, Daddy Dok would probably say “Ja, sure!” Nanny would probably giggle.

So, onward, with my month-at-a-time subscription, hunting for ancestry. Who were they? How did they live? What were their days like? I suppose i could keep reading the Sagas, which give us a picture of those days…

Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241) wrote, “A man called Halldor, the son of Brynjolf Camel the Old, was a shrewd man and a great chieftain. This is what he said when he heard people saying how unlike one another the two brothers, St Olaf and King Harald (my ancestor, if all is correct…), had been: ‘I was held in high regard by both brothers, and so I knew their natures very well; and I have never known any two men so much alike. They were both highly intelligent and extremely brave in battle, hungry for wealth and power, imperious and haughty, able rulers, and ruthless in punishment. King Olaf forced the people to adopt Christianity and the true faith, and cruelly punished those who were slow to obey him. The chieftains would not endure his just and rightful rule and raised an army against him, and killed him in his own kingdom, For that reason he was made a saint.

‘King Harald,’ [my 30th great grandfather???] ‘however, went to war for fame and power, and he forced everyone he could into submission; and so he was killed in another king’s land.

‘Both brothers were considerate and generous in their everyday manner. They travelled widely, and were men of great enterprise. And all this made them outstanding and famous far and wide.'” (King Harald’s Saga, Snorri Sturluson. 100. A Comparison.)

Hmmmmm…..goes right back to “Religion, Politics, and Child Raising.” Needs more thought, eh?

Their beliefs were not exactly like mine. Their children were not raised like mine. (See the book series, Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset. My copies are translated by Tiina Nunnally. wonderful.) And politics? Well, look at the Icelandic Sagas (Njal’s Saga, for instance) to see how they lived and served, both rulers and the ruled, way back “then”.

Was it much the same as it is today, a balance of one end to the other, good and bad, happy and sad? Probably. Perhaps there wasn’t as much fighting and arguing over these issues, though. Maybe they worked so hard, they didn’t have time to argue over issues. Actually, in Njal’s Saga, they seemed to just kill the ones they disagreed with, hah! Not much discussion there…..

Frankly, i am weary of arguments and disagreements. At least with knitting, there’s no wrong way. There’s a pattern and a yarn for everyone. No one cares what you knit with or how you do it or what you knit. They’re too taken up with their own knitting. You can even crochet if you want to, and i’ll just knit away.

Elizabeth Zimmerman, who would be over 100 if she were alive today, knit her way through WWII in war-torn England, and said, “Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crisis.”

So, i choose to leave the arguments to others, and instead choose to knit. I choose to think about my grandson, who is being raised by my son and daughter in law however they choose to raise him, and plot how i will spoil him. I choose to vote or not vote by my own conscience, not yours. Frankly, i don’t care about your vote, either. And i choose to love the Lord with all my heart, and love others, best i can.